Women's Empowerment - Deepa Padhi For three years now the TOS has been placing emphasis on Women's
Empowerment. The effort has been led by members in two countries, India and Africa, where the need for increased human rights and safety for women is greatly felt. In the following article, Deepa Padhi, President of the TOS in Odisha, India, writes in honour of all women, and especially Smt. Droupadi
Murmu, Governor of Jharkhand, who was recently awarded the ‘Empowered Woman of Odisha Award’.

JUN 2018

TOS France reports on LCC school in the Congo Seven years ago the TOS in France joined the Liberal Catholic Church in its educational project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country where there has been ongoing conflict for decades...

MAR 2018

Bradenton TOS takes on massive library project The TS Study Centre in Bradenton, FL, has enjoyed holding their meetings at the Mitreya Center, an interfaith meeting place. A few members of the TS, however, saw an unmet need at the Mitreya Center - its library needed some TLC. Five members of the Bradenton TS/TOS group decided to take on the massive project of reorganising the Center's library, so it would be more accessible to the centre's many visitors.

NOV 2017

Food Distribution in Kenya by Usha Shah A long day, yes, but such a satisfying one! We now knew why we were delayed in Machakos! To meet God's Angels! 130 families assured of getting meals for many weeks! Time to think about how to assist God's Angels in Kyangoma Special Education Centre!

JUNE 2017

Why Can't the Sky Be Pink? Ria Pali, a member of Mahabharat group, Odisha, India, gave an experiential presentation there on "Awakening Creativity" on 5 November 2016.

TS/TOS Kenya begins Youth Empowerment Programme Three young men completed training in landscaping and gardening in April as part of TOS Kenya’s new youth empowerment programme. The combined efforts of the TS, TOS, local business and community leaders in launching the programme is an exemplary model that can be followed by us all.

JUNE 2016

TOS Annie Besant Model School, Rayagada, Odisha From its humble beginnings as a balwadi (nursery) school in 1992, the TOS Annie Besant Model School, has become government recognised and provides classes from nursery to class VII. The school that began with 20 students in a thatched house in Rayagada, Odisha, India is now housed in a permanent building with amenities such as piped water, electrical lines, toilets and a playground.

MARCH 2016

Flying Fingers Knit 15,000 Teddies in the UK The TOS Teddies for Tragedies project began in the UK in 2000. These soft little teddies, knitted with loving hands, are sent to children in need of a friend to comfort them. To date, 15,000 teddies have been knitted, 5,000 of them by the Bradford TOS alone.

DEC 2015

Golden Link College Since 2002 the Golden Link College has stood as a prime example of a truly theosophical school. Suggests Vic Hao Chin Jr, “The work of a theosophical school is about character building, personality development and the awakening of self-awareness and higher intelligence. It is only secondarily about learning what are called theosophical concepts."

SEPT 2015

Working With Children in Colombia - This project describes work being done with needy boys and girls in Colombia to instill good moral values and brotherhood within the nation's children.

JUNE 2015

Brisbane TOS Art Show- This project describes an example of international cooperation within the TOS when a group in Australia was inspired to raise funds for a mobility aids project organised by the TOS group in the Assam and Arunachal Region of India. “We find the dedication, compassion and organisational ability of this Indian TOS group inspiring, and feel it is a privilege to be able to contribute ongoing financial support for its efforts to provide mobility aids to those in need.”

MAR 2015

“Love without borders”: the TOS in France joins forces with the TOS in Ukraine — A touching initiative of TOS members in France to bring comfort to both Russian and Ukrainian children, victims of the continuing military skirmishes in eastern regions of Ukraine.

DEC 2014

For 120 years, the Olcott Memorial High School has been providing a solid education for underprivileged boys and girls in Adyar, a suburb of Chennai in India. Now it has a special need for our help in an important extension of its higher educational work.

Violence against women in India - On January 11, Sri Murlidhar C. Bhandare, Governor of the State of Odisha in India, launched the latest project of the TOS in Bhubaneswar, “Change the mind-set to stop violence against women.”

MAR 2013

SHE – A new TOS project at Adyar ...The SHE Project aims to address the health and vitality issues of the underprivileged. The first step has been to conduct a battery of tests as part of a ‘Master Health Check-up’ package for employees and contract workers at the Adyar Headquarters. The process was carried out at Precision Diagnostics, which is a part of the Medall group. The centre has state-of-the-art facilities...

NOV 2012

Promoting the application of theosophical principles - funerals. Following its Annual General Meeting in May, the TOS in France organised a seminar on a rather delicate theme: Burial, cremation and alternative funeral services. The seminar attracted more than 50 participants keen to gain a theosophical perspective on cremation in a predominantly Roman Catholic country where burial is the traditional practice.

AUG 2012

Working with a village in Hungary - In recent issues we have brought two news items on the youngest of our TOS groups – the TOS in Hungary, which was officially registered as a non-profit organisation in June 2011. As reported, their first long term project was the ‘adoption’ of a flood-affected village with the blessing and support of the town’s municipal officers.

MAY 2012

Two more distributions of TOS emergency aid for starving families in East Africa - Since September 2011, the TOS in Kenya has been providing emergency aid to families suffering current acute food shortage in a village to the east of Nairobi. At the end of 2011, the third and fourth distributions of food were accomplished together with further negotiations to set up a cooperative to manage a bore well and other village activities. Mrs Usha Shah, TOS convenor in Nairobi, Kenya, provides the following reports of these latest distributions in which she was personally involved.

TOS emergency aid for starving families in East Africa - In the face of the current acute food shortage in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, the TOS in Nairobi has undertaken a project on behalf of us all. The town of Kitui, 130 km east of Nairobi, was selected and a church identified as local partner....

OCT 2011

The TOS in Finland: Supporting educational projects - The TOS in Finland has been energetically raising awareness about three spiritually oriented educational projects it has chosen to support: a children’s home in southern Finland, the Olcott Memorial School and the Social Welfare Centre at Adyar, Chennai, India.

The Alchemy of Music & Dance - Once a year the Sunshine Coast Lodge of the Theosophical Society in Queensland, Australia stages an event to bring the message of theosophy to coast residents and at the same time raise funds for the TOS projects it supports. There is another unintentional benefit for all who contribute to making this day such a success – the simple joy of engaging in service and building a nucleus of brotherhood.

Collecting books for the Golden Link College library- a project of the Adelaide TOS and the TOS in New Zealand.
When you find a school whose philosophy and practices are based on theosophical principles what do you do? Well, the answer was clear to members of the TOS groups in New Zealand and Australia. They are committed to supporting the school – in this case the Golden Link College in the Philippines.

DEC 2010

Drinking water for
all at Adyar -
Until this past June, residents and workers at the TS’s
international estate at Adyar have relied on ground water for their
drinking supply. The Social Welfare Centre situated just outside the
main gate
of the compound also depended upon it. Gradually this water has become
less
suitable for drinking. In early June, the TOS in Chennai facilitated
the
installation of a reverse osmosis water purification unit on the TS
estate...

OCT 2010

Lumen School opens in the
Philippines - A new theosophically-oriented school has
just opened in a poor farming district of Bago City, gateway to the
western province of the island of Negros in Central Philippines.

JULY 2010

Update on Seeing Eyes for Everyone
- In launching this programme in September 2007, the TOS Chennai Region
aimed to provide eye care for as many disadvantaged people in and
around the city as possible. So far, screening for vision
impairment has been carried out in five schools and two slum areas,
totalling some 8,500 school children and slum dwellers.
(more...)

MAY 2010

Service
activities in the Ojai Valley - Krotona is known
all over the TS world as a spiritual centre where members can go on
private retreat or to study theosophy at its school.... What is less
known is that the residents engage in modest local community service
projects (more...)

MAR 2010

Can
We Do Anything About This? - Extracts from a talk given
at the first international conference of the TOS on the subject of
mobility aids in his country by Mr P.S. Mital National
Secretary, TOS India

JAN 2010

Finland:
Two projects - The
TOS in Finland is one of our most recently formed TOS groups. It
started in October 2008 with great enthusiasm and in just over one
year, has already taken up the challenge of supporting two projects: a
children's home in southern Finland and a new Krishnamurti School in
India. (more...)

NOV 2009

Heartbeats of Africa-
One out of every 200 children born in developing countries suffers from
a repairable congenital or rheumatic heart defect.... The TOS in Dar es
Salaam ... has chosen to support the Heart Babies Project. (more...)

Partnerships to promote
service - From Tim Boyd, TOS USA .... A couple of years ago we were thinking about what we
might do to have a greater impact on people’s lives. The biblical
example of teaching people to fish rather than giving them a fish came
to mind. We came up with the idea of Service Workshops.. (more...)

JUL 2009

Sponsoring the
education of underprivileged girls in Pakistan - As the
global war on terrorism continues and governments join hands spending
billions of dollars to rid the world of this evil, another war is also
taking place, albeit silently and very often unnoticed. It is a war
against the ignorance, superstition and tradition that deny millions of
women and girls in underdeveloped countries their inalienable rights...
( more... )

MAY 2009

The TOS in Sweden is
just a little over ten years old and already it has an impressive
record of service. Since its foundation in 1995, it has focused on
helping orphans and street children in Latvia and working with another
small Swedish organisation called Letthjälpen
(Swedish for Helping Latvia) or Latvian Aid Association. ( more... )

MAR 2009

The
Annie Besant Animal Welfare Dispensary, Adyar - Any idea
how many animals are treated per year at the animal shelter at our
International HQ? Around ten thousand – almost all free of charge. What
about the number of staff members? There are eight: three
veterinarians, a manager and four attendants. An extra attendant
is needed to drive the ambulance truck; in the meantime the senior
doctor, Dr Jagannathan, has to drive it himself..... ( more...)

JAN 2009

The SEE (Seeing
Eyes for Everyone) Project was launched in September 2007
to mark the 150th birth anniversary of eminent Theosophist, Damodar K.
Mavalankar. The Theosophical Order of Service, Chennai Region, India,
has initiated this new project, extending the range of medical support
its members already provide to disadvantaged people in their area. So
far, screening for vision impairment has been carried out in five
schools and two slum areas...
( more... )

NOV 2008

Golden Link
School, Philippines was founded in 2002 by the
Theosophical Society and the Theosophical Order of Service in the
Philippines to provide a transformational education for less privileged
children. Many in the theosophical world regard it as a model of
Theosophy in action amongst the young. While addressing core academic
subjects, the school also focuses on deeper issues of character
building, integrity, and self confidence in an effort to develop
students who will be agents of social and personal transformation....
( more...)